My Point of View About Industrial Food Systems

In this blog I will discuss what I learned from our English 101 class. During class, the books we read, which were The CAFO Reader by Daniel Imhoff and Slaughterhouse by Gail Eisnitz  were very informative and taught us a lot about industrial farming systems. These books explain to us the extent to which how unhealthy the meat that is produced by industrial farms is in America.

This semester, I have learned a lot about industrial farming systems that I didn’t know before. I was never fond of the concept of industrial farming, but I have even more unpleasant opinions on the concept after taking this class. Before I didn’t know that our domesticated animals regularly ingest antibiotics. This is really bad because it disrupts the digestive systems of the animals. Furthermore, the animals in industrial farms are given very unhealthy diets as they are fed manure, urine, dust, and the remnants of other dead animals. Not only is this detrimental for the health of the animals, but it affects the health of humans who later consume those animals as well. Due to such mistreatment, Americans are suffering many diseases today, as a result of eating animals that weren’t taken care of well. Reading Imhoff’s and Eisnitz’s books made me realize how dangerous it actually is to consume the meat produced by industrial farms. In addition, it makes me sad to know how much workers in industrial farming systems suffer, as well as the animals.

All the things made me changed my mind to eat fast food, and I just say everybody to concern your food what you eat every day. After all, healthy food is allows people to live healthy lives 

The Eleventh Hour

The 11th Hour is a film about the many problems that the environment faces today, such as global warming, species extinction, deforestation, and the depletion of ocean habitats. James Woolsey and others explain how hurricanes, earthquakes, and other natural disasters are the result of negative climate and environmental changes. Industrial factory farms systems are one of the major factors that cause detrimental effects on the environment, as they induce pollution, and hazardous chemicals to enter our oceans.

The main message that the film continuously implies throughout the movie is that the future of humanity is in danger with the rate that people are mistreating the environment, but there is still time to make things better. Narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio, and with contributions from over fifty prominent politicians, scientists, and environmental activists, the film presents the audience with reliable facts about how the Earth is in serious danger with all the problems that it is currently facing. At one point of the movie, Oren Lyons, an environmental activist poses the question, “What if we choose to eradicate ourselves from this Earth, by whatever means?” He continues on to say, “The Earth goes nowhere. And in time, it will regenerate, and all the lakes will be pristine. The rivers, the waters, the mountains, everything will be green again. It'll be peaceful. There may not be people, but the Earth will regenerate. And you know why? Because the Earth has all the time in the world and we don't.” Lyon’s words lead to the realization that as humans destroy nature, they also bring destruction upon themselves. In time, however, the environment is going to survive. Humans, in fact, will probably be the ones who won’t. And if we do, it will probably be in a world we do not particularly want to live in. If we are to prevent such an outcome, we must take action now.

Basically, the film is reaching out to the audience and telling us to step up and actively seek solutions to our pressing environment issues. We can start to do so by changing some of our habits and become more aware of ways to protect and preserve the environment. Our government of course aids us to save the planet and one of the many things that they can do is to eliminate the CAFO and slaughterhouse systems because those are amongst the main causes of certain environmental problems, such as climate change.

   

Zaheda's Twitter

https://twitter.com/#!/Zaheda101food

My Twitter ID

@Zaheda101Food

The end of overeating

                          In this blog I will discuss the end of overeating by David A. Kessler, MD, tells us about how he discover the real cause of overeating, because it has become major problem for   millions of people. Dr. David says that habit of over eating may be taking place in our brain, because brain is a main center that has power to control our behavior. Dr. David states that “Palatability is largely based on how food engages the full range of our senses” (12). He’s point is that Palatable foods which are contain some rich combination of sugar, fat, and salt basically these ingredients trapped our brain to eat food, whether hungry or not. This article gives us new knowledge about how “ Food had become more readily available in the 1970s and 1980s” (Kessler 6).In other words Kessler believes increasing fast food chain restaurants way of food design such as flavor, texture, and appearance that make the people to desire eat more and more even when they are full. Concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO) systems basically promoted by the fast food chain restaurants, because of cheap meat, milk, dairy, and eggs products. People who are try to rid their bodies the burden of over weight and spend money for short term weight loss process. I believe instead of this, increases your willpower, and control your mind then you can rid from obesity and many other health problems.

Farm to Fridge

Many of us don’t know how our food is being grown. The books CAFO Reader by Daniel Imhoff and Slaughterhouse by Gail A. Eisnitz are telling us a painful and shocking story behind our food processing. In this blog I will discuss about “Farm to Fridge” by Mercy for animals, our modern farms and slaughterhouses confine thousands of animals such as chickens, turkeys, pigs, and cows in small spaces under unbearable and horrifying conditions. They are denied from fresh air, sun light, and exercises. Workers of these slaughterhouses/farms kill animals ruthlessly, crudely, etc. I have seen in this video that our domestic animals, such as chickens, turkeys, cows, and pigs are the most abused animals as well as the most neglected animals by the workers. 

           I’ll start with chickens and turkeys, the video shows how male baby chicks do not even live for more than a day, as they are dropped into a grinder right after their birth, killing them. There’s even more, male baby chicks are also killed by being put in a plastic bag which suffocates them by the workers.  The female baby chicks have it even worse; their beaks are chopped off forcefully with a laser and put them in a tiny wire cages. Same things happens with the piglets. When pigs are sick or have an illness they are slammed to the ground head on killing them instantly or killing them by carbon dioxide. There are more, Cows are unfairly treated because their tail, nerve, and bones are cut off without any painkillers similar to what happens to female baby chicks. In addition, Baby cubs are forcefully taken away from their mother, never meeting each other again. According to the Slaughterhouse,” skinning cattle while they were still alive”. This means how the helpless animals are tortured and dismembered alive. "It is also really dangerous for the skinners and the rest of us” (Gail A pages 29).Gail says while live cattle’s skinning some of workers are injured because at that time cattle violently fighting and struggling to survive. That’s not all, there are many other animals are living in overcrowded and filthy conditions, as well as being confined to cages that are as big as them. Is this a food that we consume everyday? 

The CAFO

              In this blog I will discuss concentrated animal feeding operation system that numerous  domesticated animals are kept and raised in. Such feeding operation systems are confined places that produce the meat and seafood that many of us eat. From 1940 to 1980, animal farms transformed into factories as the number of CAFO institutions increased by ten times in America. The United Nation Food Organization predicts that in 2050 the amount of meat and dairy products that people will eat will double. The pace at which animals are killed in slaughterhouses is astounding as 7,000 calves, 130,000 cattle, 360,000 pigs, and 24 million chickens are slaughtered per day in United States. Increasing CAFOs would be detrimental to our environment, as it negatively impacts the community. CAFOs would have a a bad effect on people's health as well as effects drinking water  and increases the risk of diseases.

              Daniel Imhoff discusses that CAFOs do not provide proper animal living and are not really farms. CAFOs present a very unhealthy and unnatural way of living to animals, one of the reasons being that they are isolated from real world. When confined in a CAFO, animals are unable to receive fresh air, and are deprived of sun light and the ability to walk outside. Furthermore, instead of grass, animals are forced to eat high calorie grain, animal manure, ground up fish, and waste animal parts because CAFOs intend to induce rapid growth and weight gain in the animals.

       Within a CAFO, animals are regularly fed antibiotics whether they need them or not. As a result, people who eat these animals, are consuming these antibiotics as well, which negatively affects people's health. The Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University  concluded that the current method of processing foods is an unacceptable risk for public health and very dangerous for the environment. People who are working in the CAFOs suffer from many medical conditions, such as asthma and bronchitis because of poor air quality. " Clearly, the ways in which we produce our food define us as a culture and human beings" (Imhoff xviii). Basically, Imnoff implies that the use of CAFOs is a huge issue in our time today that must be addressed, as it raises questions about our ethical responsibilities as both eaters and produces in our current food production system. The way CAFO treats domestic animals reveals that our society, our government, our food system, and our way of life is gradually being drained of the morals it should hold.